We investigated the effects of competitive and cooperative games on aggressive and cooperative behaviors of 70 children (4 to 5 years old) from four classes in three preschools. The experimental design included both multiple baseline and reversal components. Behaviors were measured during game conditions and in subsequent free-play periods. Results showed that cooperative behavior increased and aggression decreased during cooperative games; conversely, competitive games were followed by increases in aggressive behavior and decreases in cooperative behavior. Similar effects were also found during free-play periods.
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Summary.-The media has speculated about negative effects of the role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons on players of the game. This study examined differences in feelings of alienation between 35 active players and 35 non-players. Fewer players expressed feelings of meaninglessness and more players expressed feelings of cultural estrangement than non-players. Other feelings of alienation between players and non-players were not different. Also, more committed players-those who spent more money on the game and played the game more frequently-expressed greater feelings of alienation.
Dungeons and Dragons (D & D) is an extremely popular role-playing game in which players adopt an alter ego within a medieval setting. The roll of dice sets levels of strength, intelligence, wisdom, dexterity, constitution, and charisma of the chosen alter ego. The alter ego is further classified into a particular race and class (i.e., druid, fighter, magic user, assassin, or thief).
After these classifications are decided, the alter ego is given an alignment which establishes the value the alter ego places on human life and how it views the world. Players increase their experience, wealth, power, and status as they achieve certain levels of playing (levels range from 1 to 26). Once a player has reached the highest level of playing, the player then qualifies to become a Dungeon Master whose responsibilities include refereeing the game and creating adventure campaigns for the players (Gygax, 1978).
Both the media and some groups of lay people have speculated about possible harmful effects of Dungeons and Dragons on players. For instance, teen suicides and homicides have been attributed to playing (Adler & Doherty, 1985; Walker, 1988). The popular national television show, 60 Minutes, raised the question of the effects of the game at length in 1985. In addition, it has been charged by the media that the game causes its players to become detached and alienated from family, friends, and society in general (Walker, 1988). However, there is very little evidence to support or refute such claims. Simon (1987) investigated the relationship between the number of years people had played the game and emotional stability (using Factor C of the 16 PF). He did not find a significant correlation between numbers of years people had played the game and emotional stability or any other significant correlations between the number of years people had played
the game and other factors on the 16 PF.
Requests for reprints should be sent to Linda Kline, Department of Psychology, Murray State University, Murray, KY 42071.
1220
L. A. DERENARD & L.M. KLINE
The present study sought to investigate further the potential negative effects of Dungeons and Dragons on players. Specifically, this study examined differences in alienation of players and non-players. Alienation is the feeling of being separated from one's environment or social world and is a motivation for innovative responses in social life (Nash, 1985). If the media speculations are valid, one could predict that the players would report greater feelings of alienation than non-players. Commitment or intensity of playing the game was also assessed. Based on media speculations, it was hypothesized that players who were more committed to the game or played the game with more intensity (e.g., spent more money on the game, played the game more frequently, etc.) would report more feelings of alienation.
Subjects were 70 fully informed college students who volunteered for the project. Thirty-five subjects (25 men and 10 women) were students in General Psychology who reported they had never played Dungeons and Dragons and were motivated to participate in the study by receiving additional credit for their course. The mean age of these students was 20.3 yr. (SD = 5.8). The remaining 35 subjects (30 men and 5 women) were active players recruited from a campus role-playing club. The mean age of this group of subjects was 21.2 yr. (SD = 5.0).
Subjects completed the questionnaire in groups. Background information requested on the questionnaire included sex of the subject, age of the subject, and information indicating commitment to Dungeons and Dragons (i.e., frequency of playing the game, number of years playing the game, number of hours playing the game in one setting, length of time playing a particular character, level achieved in playing, and amount of money spent on game materials). The questionnaire contained the Anomia Scale (Srole, 1956) to measure general alienation. This scale had five statements and five filler statements. The questionnaire also contained the Alienation Scale (Middleton, 1963) which measured six types of alienation (powerlessness, normlessness, meaninglessness, cultural estrangement, social estrangement, and estrangement from work). There were six statements and 10 filler statements on which subjects indicated agreement or disagreement. The potential range of scores for the Anomia Scale was whole numbers from zero to five, and the score for each of the six types of alienation on the Alienation Scale was zero or one. Subjects also completed Rotter's Internal-External Locus of Control Scale (Rotter, 1966).
Several chi-squared analyses examined differences in alienation between subjects who had never played Dungeons and Dragons and those subjects who had. A reliable difference in feelings of meaninglessness (X2 = 5.37,p < .05) was observed. Contrary to the hypothesized differences in alienation, fewer subjects who had played the game (17%, n = 6) reported feelings of meaninglessness than those who had never played (46%, n = 16). Meaninglessness, in the present context, was an indication of the lack of a sense of purpose (Robertson, 1977). It is possible that this finding reflects the way subjects were selected for this study. Players of Dungeons and Dragons were members of a campus role-playing club. Belonging to a group of people with similar interests could increase one's sense of purpose. I n support of predicted differences in alienation, was a reliable difference in cultural estrangement (X2 = 3.98, p e . 0 5 ) . More subjects who had played the game (49%, n = 17) expressed feelings of cultural estrangement than those who had never played (23%, n = 8). I n the present study, cultural estrangement was narrowly focused on interest in media forms such as television programs, movies, and magazines. Fewer players expressed interest in the media than nonplayers. Players might have less interest in the media because they spent time playing the game. T h s would leave less time available for media interests.
No reliable differences were found on general alienation, powerlessness, norrnlessness, social estrangement, and estrangement from work. An analysis of variance examined differences in locus of control between subjects who had never played Dungeons and Dragons and those who had. No reliable differences were found. Over-all, these results offer minimal support for an hypothesis that more players would report feelings of alienation than non-players. These results, along with those of Sim6n (1987), suggest that media speculations on the harmful effects of the game still lack empirical support.
Spearman rank-order correlations examined relationships between measures of commitment to Dungeons and Dragons (for those subjects who had played the game) and measures of alienation. The means and standard deviations underlying the significant correlations are shown in Table 1.
The amount of money spent on game materials was positively correlated with feelings of general alienation ( r = .47, p < .OI) and with feelings of meaninglessness ( r = .61, p< .001). Frequency of playing the game was also positively correlated with feelings of meaninglessness (r = .42, p < .01). I n addition, level achieved in playing was positively correlated with feelings of meaninglessness ( r = .45, p < .01). These findings generally support the hypothesis that players who are committed to the game or play the game with more intensity report more feelings of alienation. It is recommended that research on this, as well as other games and leisure activities, continue to examine commitment or intensity of play. Research can explore whether intense playing of Dungeons and Dragons causes players to become alienated or whether intense players were alienated prior to playing and chose to play the game in hopes that it would provide them with a sense of purpose. Perhaps the feelings expressed by the committed players in this study are no different than feelings of other individuals who are intensely committed to other recreational activities. This idea should be explored.
TO BE FIXED BELOW....
TABLE 1 - MEANS AND STAND
MU
DEVIATIONS
OF ALIENATION
~ ~ E A S U R AND
ES
COMMITMENT
TO PLAY DUNGEONS
AND DRAGONS
Alienation Measures General Alienation' Meaninglessness
Commitment Measures
Money Spent On Game'
Frequency of Play"
Level of Plav Achieved'
'Potential range is 0 to 5.
bPotential ran e is 0 to 1.
:Indicates dolfm spent each week.
Indicates number of times per week.
'Potential range is 1 to 26.
I n summary, the present study yields few differences between players of
Dungeons and Dragons and nonplayers. This suggests that negative effects of
playing the game are still unknown and perhaps nonexistent. Also, players
who were more committed to playing the game expressed greater feelings of
alienation. Research should examine whether the feelings of alienation of
committed players are similar to those of other individuals who are comrnit-
red to other leisure activities.
REFERENCES
ADLER, J., & DOHERTY,
S. (1985) Kids: the deadliest game? Newsweek, 106(11), 93.
GYGAX, G . (1978) Players handbook. Lake Geneva, WI: TSR Hobbies.
~~DLETO
R. N (1963)
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AtLenation, race, and education. American Sociological Review, 28, 973-
977.
NASH, J. E. (1985) Social psychology: society and selJ. New York: West Publ.
ROBERTSON,
I. (1977) Sociology. New York: Worth.
ROTTER, J. B. (1966) Generalized ex ectancies for internal versus external concrol of reinforce-
ment. Psychological ~ o n o g r a p k80,
, No. 1 (Whole No. 609).
S I M ~ NA.
, (1987) Emotional stability pertaining to the game Dungeons and Dragons.
Psychology in the Schools, 24, 329-332.
SROLE,L. (1956) Social integration and certain corollaries: an exploratory study. American
Sociological Review, 30, 709-716.
WALKER,
J. (1988) Dungeons and Dragons. The Padrlcah Sun, 107, 181. Pp, 1, 18.
Accepted May 2 1, 1990.
This article has been cited by:
1. ARMANDO SIMON. 1998. EMOTIONAL STABILITY PERTAINING TO THE GAME
VAMPIRE: THE MASQUERADE. Psychological Reports 83:2, 732-734. [Citation] [PDF] [PDF
Plus]
2. SUZANNE ABYETA, JAMES FOREST. 1991. RELATIONSHIP OF ROLE-PLAYING GAMES
TO SELF-REPORTED CRIMINAL BEHAVIOUR. Psychological Reports 69:3f, 1187-1192.
University of Manitoba Summary.
Fantasy role-playing games have been portrayed by the media and various social organizations as being linked to, and causing, socially maladaptive behaviour including criminality. Based on this social perception it was hypothesized that roleplaying experience should be positively correlated with self-reported criminality. 20 experienced role-playing garners and 25 nonplayers completed the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, a demographic questionnaire, and a 20-item criminality measure. Regression analysis indicated that role-playing experience did not relate to self-reported criminality; however, Psychoticism, which was higher in the nonplayers, did predict criminality. The popularity of role-playing games has increased dramatically since Gary Gygax first introduced Dungeons and Dragons into the game market in 1973. Dungeons and Dragons (D & D) is now only one among many roleplaying games but it is among the bestsellers with over eight million copies sold (Brooke, 1985). As part of the game players take on the personality and actions of characters they invent and then guide the characters through imaginary worlds in search of adventure, experience, wealth, and power (Gygax, 1978).
Supporters of these games (Bonilla, 1978; Dear, 1984; Johnston, 1980) have claimed that these games attract highly imaginative and intelligent people as well as improve the social slulls and grades of the players. The Association for Gifted-Creative Children suggested that D & D encourages players to read quality literature by Asimov, Tolkien, and Shakespeare (Adler & Doherty, 1985) and Sullivan (cited in Mather, 1986) described a psychiatrist's use of the fantasy role-playing computer game Wizardry to build selfesteem in an uncommunicative, emotionally disturbed boy. However, some people are concerned that role-playing games reduce the ability of players to distinguish between fantasy and reality. The National Coalition on Television has linked the games to 29 suicides and murders since 1979 (Schuster, 1985). One woman blamed her son's suicide on his involvement with Dungeons and Dragons. Because of this she formed the organization Bothered About Dungeons and Dragons (B.A.D.D.) to call attention to its perceived ill effects (Schuster, 1985). The Christian Informa- 'This study, carried out by the first author under the supervision of the second, was submitted to the University of Manitoba in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the honours degree in psychology. Requests for reprints should be sent to ames J. Forest, Department of Psychology, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Cana d a R3T 2N2. 1188 S. ABYETA & J. FOREST tion Council has stated that, "Playing these games can desensitize players to murder, suicide, rape, torture, robbery, the occult, or any other immoral or itlegal act . . ." (Brooke, 1985, B-1). There is very little empirical evidence to help decide between these two views. Simon (1987) examined the claim by game detractors that D & D was connected to emotionally unstable behaviour such as suicides and homicides. His results indicated that role-players showed a mundane profile lacking in the emotional instability associated with suicide and homicide. He also found that claims that role playing games attract highly intelligent individuals were not valid. He concluded that role-players had healthy psychological profiles and that previous experience with D & D may have been an incidental rather than etiological factor in an individual's display of unstable behaviour.
DeRenard and Kline (1990) investigated feelings of alienation in a - group of role-players and nonrole-players. They found that, in general, there were few differences between players and nonplayers although fewer role players reported feelings of meaninglessness than those who had never played, and there was a positive correlation between commitment to Dungeons and Dragons among role-players and feelings of general alienation. The authors conclude that media speculations regarding the possible harmful effects of role-playing games are not supported by research. The present study expanded on this research by focusing on personality and socioeconomic measures of role-players and nonrole-players, and their relationships with criminal activity. Detractors of role-playing games appear to have focused on a few major incidents, and from these negative events they have assumed a causal connection between role-playing and criminality. They have not considered the possibility that other factors besides role-playing may be involved in the expression of the criminal behaviour. Their view requires a positive correlation between fantasy role-playing and criminality that cannot be explained by either personal or social factors. Using the detractor viewpoint, it was predicted that role-playing game experience would be positively correlated with self-reported criminality after controlling for personality and socioeconomic factors.
Subjects
Role-playing subjects were 20 male and female students at the University of Manitoba with a minimum of two years experience with Dungeons and Dragons who were recruited through ads and personal contact. Nonrole-playing subjects were 25 male and female introductory psychology students who received course credit for participation. Twenty-three male and female introductory students were recruited to rate the seriousness of the 20 items of criminal behaviour on the criminality questionnaire. An additional 45 introductory psychology students participated in an experiment measuring the test-retest reliability of the criminality questionnaire. Materials The Eysenck Personality Questionnaire contains 90 true-false items measuring Extraversion, Neuroticism, Psychoticism, and Lying. The test-retest reliabilities for these scales are .78, .89, .86, and .84, respectively (Eysenck & Eysenck, 1975). The criminality measure consisted of 20 yes-no items measuring criminal behaviour ranging from traffic violations to sexual assault. Subjects also indicated the approximate year in which the behaviour had occurred. Testretest reliabilities were high for 15 items (phi> .90), moderate for two items (phi> .80), and low for two (phi = .54 and 35). An 8-item demographic questionnaire obtained data on age, sex, roleplaying experience, job activity, and parents' occupations. Parental occupations in conjunction with information from Statistics Canada (Statistics Canada, 1986a, 1986b) was used to judge the subjects' socioeconomic status in 1 of 18 wage-income brackets. Procedure Forty-five subjects served in a test-retest study of the criminality questionnaire. Individuals were told the general aim of the study in Session 1 and then completed both the criminality measure and the demographic questionnaire. They returned in 3 weeks for Session 2 during which they completed the same questionnaires. Twenty-three subjects each received the 20 criminal behaviours from the criminality questionnaire printed on index cards and were asked to sort the cards from most to least serious. The average of these ratings for each behaviour were used as a measure of the perceived seriousness of the crimes by university students. In the main experiment, subjects participated in group sessions lasting approximately one-half hour. Subjects were told the general purpose of the study, then signed a consent form and completed the three questionnaires in the following order: (a) Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, (b) criminality questionnaire, and (c) demographic questionnaire.
Results
The data were analyzed using SASISTAT release 6.03 (SAS Institute, Inc., 1988). Means and standard deviations for the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire scales, age, years of role-playing experience, income group, crime, and weighted-crime are presented in Table 1. The crime score represents the total number of items scored "yes" on the criminality measure. Weighted-crime represents the total number of items scored "yes" on the criminality measure multiplied by an item's seriousness rating. 1190 S. ABYETA & J. FOREST TABLE 1 MEANS AND STANDARD DEVIATIONS BETWEEN ROLE-PLAYERS AND NONROLE-PUYERS FOR PREDICTOR ANDDEPENDENT VARL~LES Variable Role-players, n: 20 Nonrole-players, n: 25 M SD M SD Psychoticism Neuroticism Extroversion Lie Scale Yem Role-playing Income Group Age Crime Weighted-crime t tests of the differences between role-players and nonrole-players for the predictor scores indicated a significant difference on Neuroticism (t,, = 2.04, p < .05), age (t,, = -2.74, p < .01), and years of role-playing (t,,, = -12.9, based on approximate t' because variances were unequal). As well, there was a significant difference between the variances of role-players and nonrole-players on Psychoticism. To test the hypothesis that role-players would report more criminal activity than nomole-players a standard regression analysis was carried out on both the crime and weighted-crime score using the seven predictor variables. It was predicted that the role-playing variable would be a significant predictor of self-reported criminality after the effects of socioeconomic status (as measured on the income variable), personality (as measured on the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire), and age were controlled. The seven-predictor regression model for the dependent variable crime was non-significant (F,,,, = 1.24, p < .3l, R2 = .19; Adj. R2 = .04). The only parameter of the regression equation to be significantly different than zero was Psychoticism (t,, = 2.03, p<.O5). The seven-predictor regression model for the dependent variable weighted-crime was also non significant (F,,,, = 1.14, p < .36, R2 = .18; Adj. R2 = .02). The only parameter of the regression equation significantly different from zero was Psychoticism (t,, = 2.24, p< .03). These analyses dichotomized subjects into game-players and nongame-players. The same two analyses were carried out using the variable years-of-game-playing which is a continuous variable. The results were the same; both F ratios were non significant and the only parameter of the regression equation that was significantly different from zero was Psychoticism. The above analyses are appropriate for assessing the unique contribution of the game-playing variable to self-reported criminality after controlling for the other variables in the regression equation; however, if game-playing correlates highly with several other variables, it may predict criminality if entered early in the regression model. To examine this possibility additional post hoc regression analyses were carried out using a forward selection procedure (entry level set at .>), a maximum R2 selection procedure, and a stepwise procedure (significance level for remaining in model was .15). The forward selection procedure adds variables to the regression model based on selecting the variable having the largest F of the variables not yet in the model. The stepwise procedure is similar to the forward procedure except that variables already in the model can be dropped if they do not produce a significant E The maximum R2 procedure tries to create the best one-variable, two-variable, etc., regression model by adding and subtracting variables to determine which lead to the greatest increase in R2. The results of 24 analyses were identical to those of the previous regression analyses for both the crime and weighted-crime dependent measures; d F ratios were non significant at the .05 level and the only regression parameter that was significantly different from zero was Psychoticism. Psychoticism entered each regression model first and remained in all models. Indeed, in the stepwise analysis it was the only variable that entered the model; all others were non significant. DISCUSSION The results of this study do not support the detractor hypothesis of the connection between role-playing experience and criminal behaviour. The roleplaying variable was so unimportant that it could not even pass the liberal entry standard set in the forward selection procedure for a four-variable regression model. The only variable to enter the regression models consistently and predict criminality responses was the Psychoticism factor. Eysenck and Eysenck (1975) describe the characteristics of a person scoring very high on the Psychoticism scale as an individual who may be solitary, troublesome, not caring for people, and lacking in sympathy and feeling. The Psychoticism scale has been shown by Eysenck and Eysenck to be significantly higher in both male and female prisoners. In the present study it was the nonroleplayers who reported more criminal activity and obtained the higher Psychoticism scores although their Psychoticism scores were not in the range of those for male prisoners (M = 5.72, SD = 3.56) or even above their age norms (16 to 19) for male university students (M = 4.63, SD = 3.27). The underlying significance of the inverse relationship between Psychoticism and role-playing experience is somewhat unclear since the Psychoticism scale has lower reliability and internal consistency than the other scales (Eysenck & Eysenck, 1975). Further, the generality of these conclusions are limited by the sample sizes in this experiment and by the self-report nature of the measure of criminality. The failure to find a positive relationship between fantasy role-playing and maladaptive behaviour in ths study or in previous research leads one to ask why the negative view arose and continues to be expounded. It may be 1192 S. ABYETA & J. FOREST that negative, and perhaps even positive, views of fantasy games among certain groups may be due in part to the use of the availability heuristic (Matlin, 1989). The availability heuristic is used when the frequencies or probabilities of events are estimated on the basis of how easily examples come to mind. This method of estimating frequencies can be biased by the vividness of the events (e.g., suicides), illusory correlations between variables (e.g., roleplaying experience and suicides), and the causal models used by people to explain events (e.g., play-acting murders lead to real life murders). Researchers interested in fantasy role-playing games need to (a) obtain nonverbal measures of behaviour from garners and nongamers to complement the current findings and (b) examine the decision-making processes by which the detractors and-proponents of fantasy games evaluate the effects of playing such games.
References
Adler, J., & Doherty, S. (1985, Sept. 9) Kids: the deadliest game? Newsweek, 106, 93.
Bonilla, E. (1978) Monster match. Houston City Magazine, 6, 12-17. BROOKE, J. (1985, Aug. 22) A suicide spurs town to debate nature of game. The New York Times, B-1. Dm, W. (1984) The dungeon master. Boston, MA: Houghton.
Mifflin. Dernard, L. A,, & Kline, L. M. (1990) Alienation and the game Dungeons and Dragons. Psychological Reports, 66, 1219-1222.
Eysneck, H. J., & Eysneck, S. B. G. (1975) The manual of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire. San Diego, CA: Educational Testing Service.
Gygax, G. (1978) Phyers handbook. Lake Geneva, WI: TSR Hobbies.
Jonhston, M. (1980) It's only a game-or is it? New West, 5, 32-40. MATHER, N. (1986) Fantasy and advenme software with the LD student. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 19, 56-58.
Matlin, M. W. (1989) Cognition. (2nd ed.) New York: Holt. SAS INSTITUTE, INC. (1988) SASISTATuser's guide, release 6.03 edition. Gary, NC: SAS Institute.
Schuster, A. (1985) Critics link a fantasy game to 29 deaths. Christiani~ Today, 29, 65-66.
Simon, A. (1987) Emotional stability pertaining to the game of Dungeons and Dragons. Psychology in the Schools, 24, 329-332. S~~nsncs CANADA. (1986a) Employment income by occupation. Population and Dwelling Characteristics, CS 93-116, pp. 1-113, 1-128, Appendix 2, pp. XXXiii-XLVi. S~~nsncs CANADA. (1986b) Family incomes. Census Families, CS 13-208, pp. 18-19. Accepted December 2, 1771.
Conducted a structural analysis of the rules of some of the most popular role-playing games of the 1980s to discover recurring patterns of human character generation. These patterns are most obvious in those character generation rules concerning the basic characteristics of the simulated self. Human characters in such games have no simply phrased center; the simulated self is best described as a vague boundary. Correlations are drawn between games of various genres, and comments are made on the strategies of so-called universal role-playing systems. The recursive nature of play within role-playing games and the dialectic of play are discussed.
This article discusses the value of using fantasy and role playing games (FRPG) in the curriculum of gifted students. It lists ways that FRPG can supplement 26 academic subjects and develop 24 learning skills. Objections from religious groups to use of the games are addressed. Different types of games are compared. (CR)
Games of fantasy and role playing such as Dungeons and Dragons (1983) have become increasingly popular among adolescents and young adults. This article reviews the negative impact of such games on an adolescent inpatient treatment setting. The unrestricted play of such games contributed to the disruption of a treatment setting, resistances to treatment, reinforcement of character pathology, disruption of individual treatments, and to the normalization of violence. When such games begin to be played on a psychiatric inpatient unit or are prominent in discussions of individual patients, treaters should examine them in the context of their potential to reinforce and foster resistance and maladaptive patterns of relating to the environment. Treaters are also encouraged to attempt to understand the meaning and risks of such games in the context of an individual patient's psychiatric difficulties and of group dynamics, both within the patient group and between patients and treaters.
''A process whereby fantasy is used to overcome the inability of obsessives, schizoids, borderlines, adolescents, and alexithymics to work toward emotional change may have considerable merit. The high degree of structure engendered by the rules of Dungeons and Dragons seems to bypass some of the risks of fantasy-based therapies such as Guided Affective Imagery while allowing emotions to emerge within the therapy in a nonthreatening manner. At the same time, the therapist’s interest and attention may serve a function of mirroring approval as patients become familiar with their own, but displaced, psychic structure. The use of this game as an adjunct to therapy can allow patients an opportunity to explore their mental dungeons and slay their psychic dragons."
A case is presented of extended character analysis of a person with a schizoid personality. Because of the difficulty in establishing a therapeutic alliance, the therapy was a form of modified play therapy using a game to enhance ego development. A theoretical discussion explores the reasons of this deviation from standard therapy works and its indications for other cases.
This article demonstrates how a young man with an obsessional, schizoid personality was treated by utilizing a fantasy game, Dungeons and Dragons, as a vehicle for releasing his unconscious fantasies. It aims to show how the game may serve to free fears and feelings for useful consciousness with enhanced ego development so as to improve the patient’s ability to interact with others and feel comfortable with himself.
Fred, a 19-year-old, single white college student, had cut both of his wrists in a methodical suicide attempt and had gone into the shower in an effort to prevent the wounds from coagulating. He claimed that he had been depressed for several years, actually since grade school and that he had always been a “loner.” Friendships he did develop were usually short-term and superficial. College, he reported, had been particularly lonely for him and he had done little outside of school work. Yet he could not describe any unusual events or possible precipitants. However he reported that school work, which had been an area of success for him, had lately been going badly.
Fred gave no indication of sleep or appetite disturbance, spontaneous crying spells, depressive dreams, constipation, weight loss or other signs of endogenous depression. He denied any hallucinations or delusions.
Fred grew up in a small town. His father is in the legal profession, “likes his work,” and is very formal and not close at all. The mother is a housewife but is “otherwise a pretty good mother.” He is the second of three brothers. The oldest brother is three years older than Fred and has an undefined physical condition, “a problem with the vessels on one side of his brain” (probably Sturge-Weber syndrome) and is retarded. He stays home, “mooching” off the parents. Fred never got along with his older brother, and he was constantly angry with him because of the extra attention he got from the parents. “They always took my brother’s side in any conflict.” He stated he always got along with his younger brother. Fred was sent to boarding school and was relieved to be away.
He described, with many examples, a history of slights by family and schoolmates and how awful it felt to be known as the brother of a retarded boy. Fred denied any form of homosexual ideation.
The mental status exam showed depressed mood and affect but was otherwise unremarkable. Except for his self-inflicted wounds, his physical exam was entirely within normal limits.
Fred was seen by me in the hospital and later in twice-weekly, 45-minute outpatient sessions in addition to group therapy with different psychiatrists. He was diagnosed as having apparently free-floating depression, and was given desipramine, 150 mg per night.
At first, Fred tended to keep distance from me. He was only involved in treatment superficially but appeared to need assistance in defining life goals for himself. He used intellectualization and other obsessive defenses, but there was also an element of emotional impulsivity.
Fred felt uncomfortable in dealing with male therapists because of the strong angry feelings that were, he said, much like those he had toward his father who had “let him down” in the past.
Fred took a leave of absence from school and worked to support himself. In the first year, much of the therapeutic work was to maintain an alliance, as he had no friends and no social contacts since the suicide attempt. Two attempts of living with roommates ended in his being cheated out of rent twice. My therapeutic function at this time was primarily to allow him to share his experiences.
During the early part of the second year Fred made his first social contact outside of therapy by joining a group of “fringe people like myself” in a game of Dungeons and Dragons. At first, I was reluctant to encourage his bringing me material from his game sessions as it appeared to be resistance; however, it did allow him some social contact, and the eagerness with which he told me about the game indicated to me the importance of his sharing this material. I began to encourage him to bring summaries of episodes into therapy and to ask about motivation and feelings of characters. Therapy was now confined to his displaced material, and emotional content began to emerge. He returned to school during this period.
After six months of this approach, Fred was able to verbalize feelings toward me and began to abandon the need to speak through the displaced medium of Dungeons and Dragons.
He said his parents made him feel rejected and punished through implied loss of love and attention. They criticized him for being angry at, or envious of, his deformed brother. This left Fred with the belief that there was “something wrong with me for having these feelings.”
He stated that he had been able to experience the full range of feelings from hate to love in therapy, first displaced, then toward me, and that my tolerant, encouraging attitude allowed him to develop the sense that these emotions are permissible. This helped him to gain mastery of these feelings. It further led him to state that it gave him a sense of being “OK,” and that much of his feeling of self-worth began with my first acceptance of his Dungeons and Dragons fantasies.
Dungeons and Dragons is an imagination game. Worlds are created and the participants play characters in this imaginary world. Each player’s character is created according to a set of rules that govern abilities and classes of characters.Through complicated series of dice rolls, a character is dealt strength, intelligence, wisdom, dexterity, constitution, and charisma. The types of characters are clerics, dwarves, elves, fighters, halflings, magic users or thieves. Each of these has a characteristic range of the above abilities. All characters choose “alignments” of Lawful (good), Chaotic (or evil) or Neutral, which will further dictate behavior in situations: a complete personality or alter ego is thus delineated. These characters then work their way as a party (group of players) through the imaginary world, casting spells, undergoing adventures, fighting monsters, and non-player characters and seeking treasure. The outcome of each encounter is dictated by rolls of odd-shaped dice that take into account a character’s profile through a formula. All of this is overseen by a Dungeon Master or a character who acts as a referee.1
Two points stand out. The worlds, or dungeons, are very much primary-process creations. There is no sense of time or reality. Thus, walls may be alive and grab a passing character. Sexes may change, dead may be resurrected and so forth. In juxtaposition to the suspension of the rules of the real world are the complicated rules by which the game is governed. Every encounter is governed by rules. The game is characterized by rules. The introductory book of rules is 64 pages long and there are many additional books of rules beyond this! In order to become proficient, a player must study the rules at great length, as the game has no fixed end point. A single game may last for years. As the group of players masters a dungeon, it can go to lower (more difficult) levels to begin again.
Fred eventually joined several games and developed complete characters in each, with mores, personalities, hopes, fears, and emotions. As he described his ongoing adventures in therapy, it became possible to use each projectively and relate the characters’ thoughts, feelings and motives.
In one game, an encounter lasted for several months. Fred had taken a character who had a “lawful-evil” personality. His party had stopped in a village. He had gotten his character hired to work for the richest man in the village, a character controlled by the dungeon master. He related his progress to me as his character killed the sons of the rich man, conspired to marry his daughter, and ultimately seize the treasures of this man.
As he recounted this material in the therapy we focused on two questions: the motives and feelings of the character as he schemed and acted, and wether Fred had ever had such feelings, and in what situations. Gradually, he was able to relate that he had felt his brother had always gotten the family “treasures” of love and attention and that he had wanted to murder him much of the time. Further he revealed how such feelings were always difficult to express, but that he could see himself experiencing these feelings toward his brother again and again in many situations.
Another illustrative situation involved an episode when, in his group therapy, he had been confronted unrelentingly by the other members of the group about his lack of a girlfriend to which his only response was an angry, “Back off!” In individual therapy shortly thereafter, he revealed that the intervening Dungeons and Dragons encounter had involved his party’s striking out into an uncharted portion of a valley which they created as they went along. In this valley the party encountered five farms (the number of other group members in his therapy group). Because of an insult in the party, under Fred’s direction, they proceeded to slaughter the farmers’ families and livestock and burn down the farms. This incident involved his working through murderous rage at the therapy group in a safe, displaced way. He could talk about this incident directly only months later at which time he revealed a prior inability to find an outlet for such feelings. Similarly, grandiose and magical desires were revealed in his experience as a dungeon master; feelings of loss and separation over death of one of his characters and many similar examples.
The feelings this patient expressed in therapy were all threatening to him initially. The game provided a vehicle for the safe emergence of feeling within the context of organizing rules. As he first expressed them in a displaced way and got used to them in fantasy, he could feel safe with his feelings and begin to direct them more directly to another person. Slowly this man has been able to emerge from his isolation. He has developed self-esteem, made friends, lost his virginity, and has been able to date fairly regularly. He continued in therapy with me in more traditional ways, off and on, over a period of ten years after his suicide attempt. He is now a more openly emotional person who does not need to displace his feelings. Fred terminated therapy appropriately when his career required a move and was married about nine months later.
Freud described dreams as the “road to the unconscious” and pointed to the value of discussing dreams and a patient’s associations to his dreams in conducting therapy.2 As the century progressed, the principles were expanded by various authors to both waking fantasy and to play in children for their projective value and revelation of primary process. Thus Freud discussed the relationship between fantasy and dreams3 (p. 178) but also described how play could be used as a repetition-compulsion to re-experience events that overwhelm the ego and thus to master them.4 This observation was modified and expanded by Erikson5 to demonstrate that play could be used to gain mastery. Waelder6 saw play and fantasy as: “Instinctual gratification and assimilation of disagreeable experiences” (p. 222), in other words, mastery. Freud also suggested that fantasy provided immediate wish-fulfillment.2 Thus there is much to suggest in these observations that there is a relationship among play, dreams and waking fantasy. This relationship has been shown to be closer than analytic writers may have realized. Thus Cartwright7 demonstrated that the need for Rapid-Eye-Movement (REM) dreams could be decreased by waking, drug-induced hallucinations. Cartwright and Monroe8 showed that REM deprivation could be fended off by encouraging waking fantasy. In a study of WREM dreams, Pivik and Foulkes9 demonstrated that: “waking story telling ability correlated with NREM dreamlike fantasy” (p. 148).Klinger10 describes them as functionally interchangeable: “REM sleep suppression is reduced by permitting the substitution of waking dream description and related fantasy-like ideation for the dream loss” (p. 83).
The therapeutic use of fantasy is well known. It has formed the core of some therapies such as Guided Affective Imagery where fantasies are suggested to relaxed patients11-13 while Klinger10 suggests that: “Fantasy is incapable of reducing drives as such, but [...] can prevent or reduce the build-up of anger and can diminish anticipatory anxiety about unavoidable pain better than activities that [...] cure off anger and anxiety” (p. 315). Wolpe14 describes the use of fantasy as a means of “systemic desensitization.”
Dungeons and Dragons is a form of group-related, organized, controlled waking fantasy. It has all the elements of free fantasy and encourages free fantasy as there is no board or movable pieces to provide inhibitions to imagination. Players are encouraged to become their characters in the course of the game, which is to say, to become their own fantasies. Juxtaposed to this active encouragement of the merge of the player’ fantasies is the ever present structure of the rules that provide a vehicle for how one is to fantasize. This further offers reassurance that when needed, there are rules to provide structure for the wanderings of one’s imagination. For the patient, the game served as an organized vehicle to become familiar with his own unconscious. The use of this material in therapy, the questioning of motives and emotions allowed these underlying unconscious thoughts to come to awareness and be worked through.
In this way the game within therapy could be used to work through processes halted in childhood in the way Bettelheim15 suggests fairy tales do, by giving form and structure to day dreams and fantasies and, therefore, form to a person’s life. Beyond this, however, the use of game material in therapy served the therapeutic relationship. Bettelheim states that when parents do not allow a child an organized outlet for the “dark side of humanity” or convey the thought that such a side does not or should not exist, the child, experiencing natural thoughts and feelings, is left with the feeling of being a monster. Further, the fantasies of fairy tales teach children how to channel their emotions in a way that allows integration of personality by “meaningful and rewarding relations in the world around him.”15 Certainly this patient took something from the peer relationships in the games. In his own words, however, almost as if speaking from Bettelheim, the encouragement to become familiar with the emotions of his characters allowed him to “become familiar” with his own emotions. Beyond that, my patient’s acceptance of these feelings allowed him to see himself as not a monster for having them. His parents had left him with the impression that it was wrong to be angry with his crippled brother. In the patient’s words: “This fact, more than anything that was actually said in the therapy is what I’ve gotten from the therapy.” Langs16 points out that there is always a “spiralling unconscious communicative interaction” between patient and therapist, and that this is where the work of therapy transpires and that the patient’s communications are “adaptational responses prompted by emotionally meaningful stimuli.” Certainly this is what has happened in this therapy. The relationship allowed permission for feelings of anger and love and all in between to emerge. The vehicle to reach these feelings quickly and safely was through the use of projections and displacements of the fantasies onto the Dungeons and Dragons game. This was the vehicle by which this patient could interact with me as his therapist in an emotional way. This made possible the later work of therapy that might not otherwise have been possible in an individual who was so schizoid. It allowed this patient to experience as safe the working through of transference later in the therapy. This is essentially what Kernberg17 speaks of in emphasizing the need for structure in therapy to proceed. Structure will “[...] [U]ndo the confusion caused by frequent ‘exchange’ of self- and object-representation projections by the patient.”
Perhaps the most important aspect of all can best be summed up by the words of Winnicott: “Psychotherapy takes place in the overlap of two areas of playing, that of the patient and that of the therapist. Psychotherapy has to do with two people playing together. The corollary of this is that where playing is not possible then the work done by the therapist is directed towards bringing the patient from a state of not being able to play into a state of being able to play.”18 In much this way, play and fantasy were used as vehicles to help foster an ego-building relationship for this patient. He could develop better selfobjects out of the safety he felt in a therapeutic relationship where his fantasies were tolerated, encouraged and guided. It seems, therefore, that we could help many people for whom traditional modes of therapy are unavailable because they lack the capacity to regress sufficiently in the company of the therapist to allow the work of therapy for structural, emotional change to proceed. By introducing fantasy and play, Dungeons and Dragons appears to have been the vehicle that allowed the patient described in this paper to enhance ego development.
A process whereby fantasy is used to overcome the inability of obsessives, schizoids, borderlines, adolescents, and alexithymics to work toward emotional change may have considerable merit. The high degree of structure engendered by the rules of Dungeons and Dragons seems to bypass some of the risks of fantasy-based therapies such as Guided Affective Imagery while allowing emotions to emerge within the therapy in a nonthreatening manner. At the same time, the therapist’s interest and attention may serve a function of mirroring approval as patients become familiar with their own, but displaced, psychic structure. The use of this game as an adjunct to therapy can allow patients an opportunity to explore their mental dungeons and slay their psychic dragons.
A schizoid young man made a methodical attempt at suicide. He revealed a paucity of object attachments leading to profound isolation. His early upbring led him to extreme isolation of affect and a fear of fragmentation.
His inner life was not safely reachable by conventional therapy. After he became involved in playing a fantasy game, Dungeons and Dragons, the therapy was modified to use the game material as displaced, waking fantasy. This fantasy was used as a safe guide to help the patient learn to acknowledge and express his inner self in a safe and guided way. The patient ultimately matured and developed healthier object relations and a better life.
The theoretical underpinnings of this process are explored, both in dynamic terms and in terms of the biologic correlation and equivalence of dreams and waking fantasy. The utility of this game as a vehicle for treatment of selected individuals is discussed.
1 Moldvoy, T. (Ed.) (1981). Dungeons and Dragons Basic Rulebook. Lake Geneva, WI: TSR.
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6 Waelder, R. (1932). The psychoanalytic theory of play. Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 2, 208-224.
7 Cartwright, R. D. (1966). Dream and drug-induced fantasy behavior. Archives of General Psychiatry, 15, 7-15.
8 Cartwright, R. D., & Monroe, L. J. (1968). Relation of dreaming and REM sleep: the effects of REM deprivation under two conditions. Personality and Social Psychology, 10, 69-74.
9 Pivik, T., & Foulkes, D. (1968). NREM mentation: Relation with personality, orientation time and time of night. Journal Consultation and Clinical Psychology, 32, 144-151.
10 Klinger, E. (1971). Structure and function of fantasy. New York: John Wiley.
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13 Wolberg, L. R. (1974). The technique of psychotherapy, 3rd Ed. New York: Grune and Stratton.
14 Wolpe, J. (1973). The practice of behavior therapy, 2nd Ed. New York: Pergamon Press.
15 Bettelheim, B. (1976). The uses of enchantment. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
16 Langs, R. (1981). Modes of “cure” in psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 62, 199-214.
17 Kernberg, O. (1968). The treatment of patients with borderline personality organization. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 49, 600-619.
18 Winnicott, D. W. (1971). Playing: A theoretical statement. In Playing and reality. New York: Basic Books.